Chautala
convenes all-party meetingCompletion of SYL canalChandigarh, December 31The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om
Prakash Chautala, announced today that he would convene an all-party
meeting on the SYL issue for January 14 and subsequently meet the Prime
Minister and request him to entrust the work of completion of the canal
to a central government agency at the earliest.

Move
against MC in Indiri failsKarnal, December 31Move of the action committee formed
to boycott elections to Indiri Municipal Committee, 25 km from here,
appeared to have failed as many candidates seeking election did not
withdraw nominations. Only those seeking election from Ward number
eight, 11 and 12 withdrew nominations yesterday — last date for
withdrawals.

One held
in dacoity caseYamunanagar, December 31The police had arrested Rishipal
son of Jeet Singh of Barana village in Panipat district and solved two
cases of dacoity in which Rs 8.55 lakh was looted from a petrol station
on the Saharanpur road and in the second case Rs 6.55 lakh were looted
from Trimurti Financiers of HUDA Sector 17, Jagadhri respectively, said
Mr M.S. Ahlawat, Superintendent of Police here yesterday.

Stories from Haryana towns falling in the
National Capital Region are put in NCR Tribune.

UHBVN to issue
demand noticesChandigarh, December 31
In order to implement the concept of releasing power connections to agriculture tubewells on demand, the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran
Nigam (UHBVN) has decided to issue demand notices to all those applicants who had submitted their applications up to March 31, 1999, a spokesman of the UHBVN said here today the nigam would issue notices to all eligible applicants who would have to complete all formalities such as payment of requisite amount and submission of test reports within one month.

Allotment of 150 plots cancelledKarnal, December 31The Karnal Market Committee has forfeited the deposits and cancelled the allotment of 150 plots sold in 1998 at the new grain market here along the national highway for allegedly violating the auction contract.

Excavation
work inspectedYamunanagar, December 31To find the exact origin of the
Saraswati river, extensive excavations must be carried out on
scientific lines, said Dr Jagmohan, Central Tourism and Culture
Minister, while inspecting the excavation work at Aadi-Badri Narayan
Temple, near here last evening.

Chandigarh, December 31
The Haryana Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, announced today that he would convene an all-party meeting on the SYL issue for January 14 and subsequently meet the Prime Minister and request him to entrust the work of completion of the canal to a central government agency at the earliest.

Decrying HPCC chief Bhajan Lal for his decision of agitating in front of the Prime Minister’s residence on January 15, Mr Chautala said the former was indulging in the game of political oneupmanship. “ For an issue like the SYL canal, we should rise above narrow party considerations and fight unitedly”, the Chief Minister said and claimed that he had decided to call an all-party meeting to emphasise that the demand for completion of the canal had the backing of all sections of people in Haryana.

Heaping more criticism on the Congress, Mr Chautala said with the Congress being in power in Punjab, the issue could have been sorted out with intervention by the party’s high command. The Chief Minister said he had been raising the SYL issue as well as the need for nationalisation of river waters in the all forums including the National Development Council. The Centre had responded to his appeals and enstrusted Mr Suresh Prabhu, a gifted parliamentarian, with the task of looking into the suggestion regarding nationalisation of rivers, Mr Chautala said.

In a scathing criticism of Punjab for showing reluctance to abide by the Supreme Court order, Mr Chautala said Punjab had been filing review petitions in the court so that it was not slapped with contempt proceedings. Punjab could still complete the canal within the deadline if it started work on a war-footing. Otherwise he would expect a central agency to take up the work and complete it within next year, Mr Chautala said.

Listing his government’s performance in the current year, he said the most important achievement was that farmers were not put to much hardship despite severe drought affecting northern India. “We gave 53 per cent more power to farmers than the previous year in view of the drought-like situation”, Mr Chautala said and added that water supply was 25 per cent more from the Yamuna and 10 per cent more from Bhakra, which enabled the farmers to tide over the crisis. The situation was handled in Haryana much better than what was done in other drought-affected states. As a result of the steps taken by the government, the quantum of paddy coming to mandis remained almost the same as it was last year, the Chief Minister claimed.

Mr Chautala said that on the political front, his most important achievement was that Mr Bhajan Lal failed to topple his government. He claimed Mr Bhajan Lal had become the HPCC chief by giving an assurance to Congress president Sonia Gandhi that he would remove Mr Chautala from power within three months. “ It has been five months since Bhajan Lal became the HPCC chief but he has not succeeded in his objective”, the Chief Minister said.

In the arena of sports also, Haryana had figured well. Players of Haryana origin had earned laurels in the Asian Games as well as Commonwealth and national games. The Centre had also agreed to set up a sports university in the state.

While admitting that the government received setbacks by the BKU agitation at Jind, the killing of five Dalits at Dulina and the cane charge on job-seekers at Gohana Sugar Mill, Mr Chautala, however, said that these incidents were aberrations in his otherwise good record in the current year.

Karnal, December 31
Move of the action committee formed to boycott elections to Indiri Municipal Committee, 25 km from here, appeared to have failed as many candidates seeking election did not withdraw nominations. Only those seeking election from Ward number eight, 11 and 12 withdrew nominations yesterday — last date for withdrawals. In other Wards, some candidates chose to ignore the boycott call.

The action committee was formed to seek scrapping of the elections for the Municipal Committee scheduled for January 19 and formation of a panchayat in Indiri town. Nearly 50 candidates were left in the field from all 10 wards. Only two candidates are seeking election in Ward No 10 and 13.

Enquiries showed that the candidates who had promised to the Action Committee to withdraw went underground today to avoid pressure of the action committee. The committee is opposed to the formation of a Municipal Committee as it would mean taxes.

Besides, in the past 25 years of its existence, the Municipal Committee had undertaken little development in the town. The residents of Gudha village which forms part of the electorate, have already filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court opposing elections to the Municipal Committee. They want a panchayat formed.

Enquiries reveal that even though majority of the citizens were against the formation of the Municipal Committee, yet they do not want to oppose the government.

Yamunanagar, December 31
The police had arrested Rishipal son of Jeet Singh of Barana village in Panipat district and solved two cases of dacoity in which Rs 8.55 lakh was looted from a petrol station on the Saharanpur road and in the second case Rs 6.55 lakh were looted from Trimurti Financiers of HUDA Sector 17, Jagadhri respectively, said Mr M.S. Ahlawat, Superintendent of Police here yesterday.

The SP presented the member of dacoits’ gang before mediapersons. Other members of the gang are Anwar, Dhan Parkash, Kuldip alias Pappu Thakur (Saharanpur), Dr Parmod Saini (Hardwar), Chaman Lal of Prem Khera village, near Nising (Karnal), Neeraj alias Banti, Buria (Yamunanagar) the arrested member revealed that they worked the under the directions of Chaman Lal who provided them shelter and monetary help. Neeraj alias Banti of Buria identified targets in Yamunanagar, he added.

Rishipal said that 7.45 p.m. he was dropped near Swami Vivekanand Public School on the day of dacoity by Anwar. Mr Dhan Parkash, Pappu Thakur and Dr Parmod followed Trimurti Financier and after half an hour reached where we were standing. He overtook the car of the financier and blocked his way and we looted the financier. He got Rs 1.22 lakh as his share in this dacoity. In the second dacoity on petrol station on the Saharanpur Road in August, Rishipal revealed that Dhan Parkash directed us to carry out the operation in which Dr Parmod Saini accompanied him and we stood at a distance. Dhan Parkash, Anwar and Pappu Thakur executed the plan at 11.30 a.m. He told he was paid Rs 87000 as his share. Rishipal also informed that his gang had looted Rs 1.75 lakh from a jeweller.

Chandigarh, December 31
In order to implement the concept of releasing power connections to agriculture tubewells on demand, the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran
Nigam (UHBVN) has decided to issue demand notices to all those applicants who had submitted their applications up to March 31, 1999, a spokesman of the UHBVN said here today the nigam would issue notices to all eligible applicants who would have to complete all formalities such as payment of requisite amount and submission of test reports within one month.

In case an applicant failed to fulfil the necessary formalities in time, his name would be struck off. However, in such cases, the Superintending Engineers of the respective areas would have the power to consider the revival of their applications within one year with original seniority.

He clarified that the applications would be finally cancelled after the lapse of 12 months, if the applicant did not come forward for revival of his application after completing the necessary formalities.

Karnal, December 31
The Karnal Market Committee has forfeited the deposits and cancelled the allotment of 150 plots sold in 1998 at the new grain market here along the national highway for allegedly violating the auction contract.

Committee secretary S.K. Goyal stating this here today said these plots would henceforth be the property of the committee. The plot which were auctioned in 1998 amid dramatic disruptions and political hue and cry over the reserve price, 25 per cent of their cost was realised on the spot. The rest 75 per cent was to be deposited in six-monthly instalments with interest. Despite umpteen number of notices to the plot holders in this regard, none of them came forth to deposit the outstanding amount, Mr Goyal said. So, the committee under condition 19 of the allotment letter and rule 200 of the Haryana State Agricultural and Marketing Board has forfeited the deposit money which is about Rs 5 lakh per plot.

The plot holders, mostly from Karnal seem to be unfazed by the development as none of them has come forward to register a protest so far.
UNI

Yamunanagar, December 31
To find the exact origin of the Saraswati river, extensive excavations must be carried out on scientific lines, said Dr Jagmohan, Central Tourism and Culture Minister, while inspecting the excavation work at Aadi-Badri Narayan Temple, near here last evening.

Mr Virender Singh under whose leadership the excavation work is being carried out at the site on behalf of the Archaeological Survey of India informed the minister that during the past three weeks, important remains from the period of the Kushanas to Rujput had been found out. Relics of pottery and remains of an old Shiva Temple located below the present Mantra Devi Temple had been collected.

The temple had been built on the confluence of Sarsawati and Som rivers. Mr R.S. Bisht, ASI Director, revealed that a tomb-like structure of engraved stones had been found on the hill-top facing the newly found remains of the Shiva temple.

Chandigarh, December 31
Haryana Congress President Bhajan Lal has convened an emergency meeting of the party here for January 2 to finalise the strategy for organising a demonstration in Delhi on January 15 to press the demand for completion of the SYL canal.

The meeting will be attended by office-bearers of the party, former Presidents of the party, DCC Presidents, MLAs and the heads of frontal organisations.

Ambala, December 31
A major fire broke out in a customer care and spare parts centre of a home appliance company today early in the morning at Ambala city and destroyed appliances worth Rs 20 lakh.

The fire broke out in BPL customer care centre around 3 a.m. A lady who lives near the centre spotted the fire. Four fire tenders managed to control the fire after a two-hour
struggle.

According to information, a number of colour television sets, refrigerators and washing machines stored in the centre were destroyed. However, the cause of the fire could not be ascertained. The police has registered a case.